Spunky CS Northridge Managed to Throw a Scare Into UCLA : College volleyball: Matadors must be content with making history as the first team from school to play for a Division I title.

The din of the crowd has faded and the pulse in his neck no longer throbs against the button on his collar.

John Price, coach of the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team, is almost back to normal.

But not quite. Recollections of the Matadors’ 15-8, 15-11, 15-10 loss to UCLA on Saturday night in the NCAA Division I championship match remain vivid.

“I can rationalize and justify the season, and even that night because I think we played pretty well,” Price said this week. “But I can also ‘what if’ myself to death.”

For example, what if Northridge had come back to win the second game? The Matadors trailed 8-0 and 9-1 but rallied to cut the deficit to 10-9 before losing.

“They could have won it tonight if we were just a little off,” UCLA Coach Al Scates said. “They peaked. Coach Price did a great job. His team was playing its best volleyball of the year during the playoffs.”

Scates recalls a time not too long ago when other collegiate teams used to play Northridge “and beat them up.”

“Now they’re right there with all the top teams,” he added. “Those seniors, (Ken) Lynch, (Coley) Kyman and (Axel) Hager, they’ve seen that program come a long way.”

Almost all the way to the top. The record will show UCLA won with a sweep. But Scates, whose teams have won 14 national championships, acknowledged that the match was closer than that. He said Northridge had UCLA “in trouble” as the Matadors scrambled back during the second game.

“They needed to win that one game,” he said. “If they did, their confidence would have been real high.”

Jeff Campbell, Northridge’s top assistant, said the pressure of living up to their top ranking showed on the faces of Bruin players.

“When they lost this year, it was because they played poorly,” Campbell said. “They were playing well and we were still challenging them.”

As Northridge crept closer, Scates said, “The momentum completely switched. We were just trying to stop the bleeding. I used my timeouts up, but there wasn’t much to do but stand there and yell at them.”

Scates’ comments all but echoed those of Price. “We had enough chances in all three games to win,” the Northridge coach said immediately afterward. “If we could have won just one game from them, that could have changed the whole match.”

Instead, Price and the Matadors had to settle for simply making history as the first Northridge team to play for a Division I title.

Now the concern for Matador fans is, did the team squander its only chance at a championship in the foreseeable future?

Kyman and setter Matt Unger, the fiery leaders of the team, have exhausted their eligibility. Kyman is a three-time, first-team All-American. Lynch was a four-year starter. Hager was a second-team All-American this season.

“They lose a lot of talent,” Scates said.

Said Price: “We will have big, young, good players. We had a great recruiting class.”

Foremost among Northridge recruits is Jason Hughes, a 6-foot-6 hitter from Royal High. Campbell rates him as the best high school volleyball player in the nation.

“We will be good for at least the next three or four years,” Price said. “I don’t know if we’ll be final four material, but by the end of the year we should be in position to be in the (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) tournament.”

The Matadors failed to bring back a championship, but they appear to have established a volleyball tradition. A large contingent of Matador fans helped set an NCAA championship two-day attendance record of 13,073. Of the 8,482 fans who watched the title match, roughly half were Northridge rooters.

“The support was, and has been, awesome,” Price said. “People have been coming up to me--other coaches, administrators, students--and they all have something nice to say.

“I feel bad. I’m saying thanks, but I don’t feel like I’ve been very appreciative. . . . We were so close.”